Major League Soccer clearly didn’t think that the whole laid back West Coast Vancouver vibe would be suitable for their much vaunted ‘Rivalry Week”, so while the Whitecaps travel to Victoria to take on the Vikes in a friendly, let’s use that time to evaluate how the players have been performing so far.

Two games is probably an unfair sample size on which to judge any player, but life is rarely fair and (contrary to popular opinion) these columns don’t write themselves so I’ll clutch at whatever straws I can.

Joe Cannon- at the end of last season the smart money would have been on Cannon heading out of the club after Brad Knighton took control of the goalkeeping position, but Cannon showed enough determination and quality during the pre-season to earn the number one spot back.

He has started this new season as he began the old, with some good saves and solid performances, but he was at fault for the goal against Columbus when he guessed badly on the direction of the shot and his distribution still leaves much to be desired (how do you miss a whole football field?) which leaves his job security still in the “tenuous” range.

Cannon’s experience is still valuable to the team however and he will likely start against Houston 6/10 for the season so far.

Y.P. Lee- there were a couple of moments in the Columbus game where a dangerous cross was whipped into the Whitecaps’ penalty area only for it to be calmly controlled by Lee, who then proceeded to ease any tension by playing a simple pass to a colleague and set off on one of his frequent charges down the right wing.

Actually “charges” is probably the wrong word there because that implies that there is an element of recklessness to his play that simply isn’t there; if Lee moves forward then you can bet that he has spotted an opportunity for space that most of us have missed.

In the latter stages of that win over Columbus he was frequently found in the attacking area of the field, but he used that forward position to cleverly run down the clock in a way that gave the rest of the defence welcome respite.

Hard to think of much he has done wrong (though he would be able to tell you better than anyone else) 8/10.

Andy O’Brien- Thinking back on O’Brien’s two performances this season it’s hard to think of anything that he has actually done; no last-minute sliding block, no header off the line and no crunching challenge on an opposition danger man.

That absence of memorable incidents is his strength however, because O’Brien is good enough to allow his positioning to do more of the work than his tackling and his role in the team only increased in importance once Jay DeMerit became injured.

From now on O’Brien will be playing with partners who are either inexperienced with regard to MLS or just plain inexperienced; his quiet authority should prove to be the ideal model for those players to learn from. 7/10

Alain Rochat- Rochat spent the latter half of last season playing away from his more familiar left back role; a spell as a midfielder and the occasional cameo appearance as a central defender meant that Jordan Harvey took on the mantle of being the Whitecaps’ defensive option on the left.

That change only emphasized how much Rochat was missed, not because Harvey is a poor defender (he isn’t) but because he lacked the quality going forward as his final ball tended to frustrate his teammates rather than find them and Martin Rennie has now seen fit to return Rochat to his rightful role (alliteration alert!!).

In the early stages of the first game against Toronto there still seemed to be a degree of rustiness about his game as he gave away careless fouls in dangerous areas but, as the game progressed, he gradually found his bearing and began to move forward with the kind of purpose we know that he is capable of and this improvement flourished even more against Columbus.

The only other criticism of Rochat’s play thus far is that his set-piece delivery has been remarkably poor (but that seems to be a Whitecaps tradition) 7/10.

Brad Rusin- Rusin is a very confident player (it may prove be his undoing at some stage of the season) but even he must have taken a deep breath when he saw Jay DeMerit limp away so early into the first game of the season.

But if there were any nerves the tall American didn’t display them and the biggest compliment that he can be paid is to say that the Captain’s absence was barely noticed for the remainder of that game.

Against Columbus Rusin had a more eventful outing; he nearly scored from a header at the end of the first half and then went for a challenge he didn’t win and which allowed Arrieta to break free and score the equalizer at the beginning of the second.

All part of the learning curve of course and his height could prove invaluable on set pieces at both ends of the field, but most pleasing of all is that he has shown the willingness and the ability to bring the ball out of defence of his own accord, something that neither O’Brien nor DeMerit are comfortable with.

Rusin still has much to prove, and the arrival of Leveron could see him back on the bench, but the early signs have been promising. 6.5/10

Next time out I once again sit in front of my computer and make critical comments about highly trained professional athletes (the midfield).

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